Update on uDiscover bundle delay received yesterday. “Dear Customer, We are writing to apologise for the delay in shipping your John Lennon Imagine order. There has unfortunately been a delay with the Imagine and Gimme Some Truth Blu-ray, which has affected both the products and bundle. Your order is now expected to ship week commencing 15th October and you will receive an email confirmation once the product leaves our warehouse. We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused and would like to offer you a 15% discount off your next order from our store. To redeem this, simply enter this code at checkout: XXXXXXX You have one year from today to use this code. Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Many Thanks, uDiscover” It took them a week to produce this and whilst an apology is appreciated plus a discount I wrote back to request the discount be applied to the order rather than a future purchase, which I’m less likely to make. No reply yet.
Not that QC at the plant is all that great with easier to check colours, like black. How does this get through?
This project is great example of creating an immersive experience for the fans that goes beyond what the original album had to offer. Imagine has never been my favorite Lennon album (that honor goes to POB) and the tracklist has always been bit of a mixed bag for me. It’s definitely doesn’t represent the peak of Johns songwriting creativity but it does capture him at the crossroads between leaving behind the Beatle past and embarking on new solo career with tones of political activism (which over the years have been oversold to the public to create his brand image). The box set has brought me closer to Imagine than ever before, I can finally “geek” out on this album. The session notes, the various mixes & outtakes , the studio layout and participants (from Yoko’s book), etc. lets you study the album like never before, exposing both its strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, it also marks the beginning of Lennon’s slide down from the toppermost of the poppermost..... I hope Yoko continues to present John’s work to us in this manner. My pick for the next one would be Walls & Bridges, his comeback album of sorts before the semi-retirement came in. The material is good but the production always seemed too dense and so a remix could nicely open that up. Also, the raw studio mixes and outtakes could help the tracks shine in new light (similar to what we heard on Menlove Avenue or Anthology). I think this same team could give Walls & Bridges another life!
So far not bad, I ordered the clear vinyl 3 days ago from UDiscover Store US and got a confirmation of shipping today
Another weird typo (sorry if it has been mentioned, I didn't see it). The tracklist for blu-ray 2 Raw Studio Mix out-take skips number 6. There are 10 tracks, but they are numbered 1-5 and 7-11. There is NO track 6.
clear vinyl set arrived today, and it looks great! Will play in a bit, as I am still going through the cds in the box
I would love for his entire solo discography to get similar treatment, it's small enough that it's feasible and won't take nearly as long as Paul's, although I wonder if that would be possible as Imagine is probably his only album where it seems every step of the process was recorded or filmed and documented. But if they combine albums to "pad" out the sets for lack of a better term including whatever outtake and extras available, such as Rock N Roll/Walls and Bridges, STINYC c.w. Live in NY (including video) Double Fantasy/Milk and Honey, P.O.B.(maybe with Yoko's P.O.B. album)and the video of the concert I'd be okay with that. Not sure what else exists for Mind Games though, especially since they included fragments of the title track in progress on the Imagine set.
I've had problems with Blu-ray #2 on my Oppo. It's choppy at the menu and difficult to navigate. I even cleaned it although it looked spotless. It plays fine on my 4K Sony. Go figure.
Finally picked the third and final piece of this release, the Imagine film Bluray. Haven’t read much about that so far here, but guessing it’s going to be decent upgrade over the Gimme Some Truth DVD. That’s brings my Imagine spend to £100 and so far, it all seems worth it!
Really is a shame about George’s solo being semi-MIA during the “raw” 5.1 “Gimme Some Truth”. John’s vocal in that mix nearly left spittle on my center channel speaker.
I really hope Yoko gives JL/POB the deluxe treatment for it's 50th. I know I'm not alone in saying it's my favorite album of his.
So I'm sure it's not a priority in most people's lives, but the seemingly conflicting information for "God Save Oz"/"God Save Us" and "Do The Oz" was making me a little crazy. First off, the liner notes misidentify the original lead vocalist of both songs. The vocalist is "Magic" Michael Cousins, not Michael Ramsden. "Magic Michael" was the fellow who John felt had great trouble remaining on key, as this 2014 recording will sadly attest: Michael Ramsden, on the other hand, was one of the members of The Silkie, who could most definitely sing on key: The Silkie You'Ve Got To Hide Your Love Away The tape boxes and personnel listings for "God Save Us" and "Do The Oz" presented in the box's liner notes raise some questions. Here's a brief chronology. 4-13-71: John records an acoustic demo of "God Save Oz" with just Steven Brendell on congas. 4-17-71: The "Oz Crowd" version of "God Save Oz" is recorded with Michael Cousins on lead vocals. Excerpts from this session, including portions of the "best" take (take 20) can be heard on the Evolution Documentary track on Blu-ray 2. "Do The Oz" appears to not have been recorded this day, or if it was, there is no aural or visual evidence of it in the box. Most of the personnel on this session (including Ringo) would not appear on the remake version below (only Klaus and John are on both). 5-22-71: Having rejected the "Oz Crowd" version, John records another version using Klaus, Nicky Hopkins, Jim Keltner, Bobby Keys and (apparently) three more saxophonists, who are credited in one spot in the box but not another. The liner notes state that John sang lead on all 4 takes recorded, and take 3 is the version on the "Singles and Extras" portion of the box. Based on the tape box, it appears that "Do The Oz" was also recorded on 5-22-71. Since we have take 3 on the box with Michael singing lead, clearly he was invited back. So why didn't he sing lead on "God Save Us"? Or was his attempt wiped from the tape? You'd be tempted to guess that "Do The Oz" with Michael dated from 4-17-71, but the personnel was completely different at that session. To complicate matters, the liner notes list Bill Elliot as the vocalist on takes 1-5 of "Do The Oz" (it appears Bill never came near that particular song, IMO). John is credited with overdubbed lead vocal on to take 6 (apparently after he decided that Magic Michael's version didn't cut it). 6-1-71: Historically the date credited for Bill Elliot's overdubbed lead vocal on to "God Save Us". With John in America, Mal produced the session, hence his earning a producer credit on the "God Save Us" sleeve ("Produced by John, Yoko, Mal Evans and Phil Spector"). The liner notes run with the 6-16-71 date for the recording of "Do The Oz", but this appears to be nothing more than the date that safety copies were made of the completed masters for the two songs. Hopefully my little bit of research (and long-winded post) has added some clarity to this confusion, for anyone who cares!
I was finally able to spend the past two nights going through the box set and films BD. Imagine has never been an album favorite of mine, and overall as a collection of songs I like it less than I did back in 1971. But with the presentations available in this boxset, the few tracks I've loved, I love even more now. A few tracks I've been "meh" about, are now more enjoyable. And, there is actually one raw 5.1 mix of I Don't Want To Be a Soldier that makes it listenable now. I only listened from the Blu-ray discs, on an Oppo 103 with no issues whatsoever. Disc one was alright, I liked the wider stereo field on the tracks that were always too mono for my tastes. I had heard the original quad years before, so I knew not to expect anything particularly great from that (besides sounding much cleaner now). The surround mixes on disc one were a let down from what I was expecting to hear after reading all the comments in threads here. They aren't bad, just way too dull for what I want in a surround mix. Disc two raw mixes, now those are some great sounding surround mixes! My one big complaint with the disc two surround mixes is the bass is way too loud in too many instances. It overpowers what is otherwise a perfect sounding presentation to me. The tracks that used acoustic bass, or very minimized bass parts are mixed beautifully. Crippled Inside is a complete joy though, so happy that track has the multiple versions included it sounds fantastic every take. Hearing the raw versions of the album tracks overall makes everything sound better. While the isolated Flux Fiddlers sound fine on their own, I personally greatly prefer when they aren't included in the mixes. I'm completely baffled by the praise I've read heaped on Power To The People take 7, that version sounds awful to me. I remember hearing alternate versions of Power To The People on the Lost Lennon Tapes radio show that I enjoyed at the time. Sure must not have been take 7 though, ugh. A thought that came from my wife, though she only sat through the isolated mixes and some of the raw mixes -- the parts are greater than the sum. Imagine in final released album form is over-produced. It was also poorly mixed, as basically every solo Lennon recording was. Even the straight remixes in this set are better than the original. I have the MFSL remix too, but don't feel like pulling it out to compare, because I don't really care. It's the raw surround mixes that I have any interest in coming back to for this album. It's a great set done much closer to how I would want a box set done and at a reasonable price -- compared to McCartney and Beatles sets so far. I just wish I loved more than four songs covered in the deluxe Imagine collection.
You feel about the same way I do. "Imagine" is not my favorite JL album by a long shot. There are many tunes on it that I flat *** don't like, but those raw 5.1 mixes make them easier to take and somewhat enjoyable. Crippled Inside was a tune I didn't dislike but never though much about, but listening to the 5.1 raw mixes (2 & 6) truly is a joy and almost sounds like an Arlo Guthrie tune of the time. Both singles, Power to the People and Happy Christmas are a bit of a disappointment to me in 5.1. They could have been unclogged, IMHO, but I suppose they remain "true to the original mix", which always annoys me with regard to 5.1 mixes of stereo only previously released tunes. Stay true to the stereo mix WITH THE STEREO MIX. For a 5.1 mix, go 5.1!
It would be nice to include the audio of John cursing at Phil McDonald, my favorite part of the "Imagine" film.
So many listings online and other places seem to totally get the musicians wrong, like listing acoustic guitars on Do The Oz and clearly mixing up the different musicians and sessions. The liner notes certainly don't help by crediting Bill Elliot on Do The Oz. Still, I always thought it was Ringo on all the sessions, but then he and Keltner could sometimes sound pretty similar behind the kit. As for the horns, it might not be Bobby Keys at all on the final versions. God Save Oz and then: Of course, the credits on BeatlesBible now has these horn players credited alongside the Oz Crowd players, so that only adds to the confusion. As for Magic Michael, I wonder how he got credited as Michael Ramsden on the tape box. And then why didn't they catch the mistake when making this set. I think you cleared up the confusion for me. I certainly care. I quite like the two Oz songs.
I'm still waiting for my order (6 disc version) to arrive from Amazon UK. According to their site, it shipped Oct. 4 and is to arrive Oct. 23. Hopefully sooner.
